Rajesh, whose role in the show was hugely appreciated by the audience, and even after so many years, it is widely remembered, revealed in an interview, that his startup didn’t work, and he had to sell vegetables outside his son’s school.
Emotionally recalling his struggling phase, Rajesh talked about his financial struggles when he decided to quit acting in 2017. The actor left his career in the entertainment industry and took up farming in his village, Gaya.
In the interview with Siddharth Kannan, Rajesh revealed starting his business as a family farmer. When he contacted his friends and colleagues, some supported him, while others ignored his calls.
He elaborated during the conversation, “After the start-up failed, I started to sell vegetables outside my son’s school. It made people think, ‘He has gone mad. Why is he selling vegetables?’ It happened so that when my son saw me selling vegetables outside his school, he went to his teachers and said, ‘Would you please buy vegetables from my dad?’ He was in third grade at that time. Then all of his classmates went to different classrooms to inform them I was selling vegetables, and requested the teachers to buy it from me.”
Rajesh added that the purpose behind selling vegetables outside his son’s school was to educate children that he wasn’t doing any menial job. His struggles didn’t stop there. He incurred a huge debt of around Rs. 2 crores. It was one of the lowest points of Rajesh’s life.
“My math was not strong. I didn’t realise I was losing Rs 22 to Rs 25 per kg. There was lots of wastage too. By this time, I had incurred a loss of about Rs 12 to Rs 15 lakh. It was additional to the debt I already had of about Rs 1 crore. At this point, I thought of getting an app made to keep the transactions and orders in check, because it was getting all messed up over WhatsApp. But, after the app was created, the man who made it, betrayed me. Within three months of the app’s existence, I happened to lose a lot of money, eventually having to shut down my start-up altogether.”
After his startup was shut down, Rajesh Kumar decided to return to acting and was seen in the second season of the popular series Kota Factory.
